Vodafone throttling? WiFi and Ethernet speeds

I think Vodafone are throttling and here’s why. I’ve changed internet providers to vodafone and Speedtest shows the speed I should be getting but fast.com only shows around 4mbps so does Netflix so I can’t stream 4K via Netflix but when I turn my vpn on (outside of the uk) fast.com shows must faster speeds. Turn back off and it’s back down to 4mbps. Surely this shows Vodafone are throttling me. Any one else having this issue with speeds? Same via Ethernet and WiFi unless I turn vpn on but then I can’t use Netflix anyway as only works if I connect outside of the UK. What does Vodafone or anyone think?

Different types of data, e.g. web browsing, Voip, Video and VPN are given different priorities by Vodafone through the network. It's possible that Vodafone have assigned a high priority to VPN traffic which assures it gets through even when the network is congested.

Speed tests from the well-known services are also given a high priority so could be missleading when the network is congested.

Good luck sorting that one out - they don't have a good reputation for fixing these issues.

Did you ever getting any success with sorting this as I’m suffering the exact same issue. My router is syncing at 51mb however streaming traffic eg Netflix struggles to get above 10mb. Fast.com along with the Netflix connection test indicates about 11mb. Put it via a vpn and it shoots up to 44mb

Untill about a week ago I'd not seen the speed issues that some of you are talking about. They have started to crop up now though.

However it doesn't look like throttling, rather that our data is bouncing around VERY SLOWLY on the dslgb and cw networks. You can understand why a provider with parrallel capabilities would want to use their own network (the CW and DSLGB nets in the UK are Vodafone property), but it seems that it's this routing that is for some reason causing slowdowns!

If that’s the case how do we prove it to Vodafone and get them to do something about it as you end up going round in circles with their tech line 2 people. The only want to accept speedtests from speedtest.net. Thinkbroadband’s speed test clearly shows a huge difference with a single thread download compared to a multi thread yet Vodafone tech team dismiss this. Real world experience of Netflix and any iptv streaming eg a Slingbox (so completely legit stuff) demonstrates a huge problem that didn’t exist previously.

It’s been link night and day since my change over. Vodafone didn’t really work streaming Netflix etc at all. And speed test were showing 5-8mbps. Worse during peak times. Now with BT (all be it paying £7 more a month) but constantly 40mbps. Worth the extra money. Think Vodafone rolled the broadband out too fast and too quickly and don’t have the infrastruction to cope with the demand. Shame as I like Vodafone and it’s a good price but it’s certainly not ready yet.

It's not throttling, if you do a tracerout, it looks like Vodafone's network is shunting your netflix requests from it's London data centre across to the USA, where they are bounced back to Leeds before being bounced back to the USA, but this time Seattle!

It looks like Vodafone is directing our UK DNS calls to the USA, and we are then getting US localized services rather than the European ones.

If anyone is brave enough to try and expalin that to Tech Support be my guest!

I'm in the exact same position. I always wondered why the fast.com speed checker always produced slower results and this explains it, accessing Netflix is borked. This also explains why I can't get above 1080p anymore, if I'm lucky.

Where do we go from here? Can't see myself settling for this for the next 6 months.

I've got a ticket open with them currently, where I can trying to suggest that routing issues may be part of the issue...

However VF are still demanding endless speed tests (now with wifi turned off). Might get somewhere with them in about 6 months times :-( Single thread performance over the cw.net network is totally useless.

I use testmy.net you can either run it manually or leave it running Automatically logging speed test results every hour even when you aren't in front of the Computer. Its very handy for logging speed variations such as Day / Evening differences - i've got about 5 weeks worth.

You can either share the results individually using url links or dump them to a CSV file

I think Vodafone are throttling and here’s why. I’ve changed internet providers to vodafone and Speedtest shows the speed I should be getting but fast.com only shows around 4mbps so does Netflix so I can’t stream 4K via Netflix but when I turn my vpn on (outside of the uk) fast.com shows must faster speeds. Turn back off and it’s back down to 4mbps. Surely this shows Vodafone are throttling me. Any one else having this issue with speeds? Same via Ethernet and WiFi unless I turn vpn on but then I can’t use Netflix anyway as only works if I connect outside of the UK. What does Vodafone or anyone think?

Now that's interesting.

I have regularly been running Speedtests to try and diagnose a fault, the VodaFone speedtest Server in Newbury is consistantly returning a download speed that is half my sync speed (about 20mbps), While another Speedtest server located at Xilo in Maidenhead is returning a download speed that is close to my full sync speed (41mbps).

Which do you trust???! I am currently trusting Vodafone - as that is the one they state to use when running Speedtests LOL

If you run trace routes it's looks like poor routing - trying to keep as much traffic within the Vodafone/Cable & Wireless network, as much as possible.

I can beat you on the Speedtest servers though! I can contact the Bytemark York server and get 47Mbps throughput, however at peak times in the evening if I attempt to contact the Vodafone London speedtest server I get no connection available! The Netflix fast.com speed test gives me about 8Mbps (30+ hops) at peak times but 38Mbps (7-8 hops) off peak.

*Hops, number of intermediate routing servers lised using the tracert command!